Grow lights are used for horticulture, indoor gardening, hydroponics and many other uses both at the industrial level and at the personal household level. Many types of light bulbs can be used with grow lights, but typically, grow lights use incandescent bulbs, florescent lights, high-intensity discharge lamps, high-pressure sodium (HPS/SON) and metal halide (MH) HID lights. While these lights are effective for growing systems, many disadvantages of these systems exist. For example, many of these lighting systems are inefficient in that much of the energy used to power the systems cannot be effectively converted to light energy and/or the wavelengths of light produced by these lighting systems does not efficiently contribute to plant growth. Additionally, many typical grow light systems emit too much heat which can cause plants to transpire more and as a result increase the amount of water needed to grow the plants.
Recently LED (light emitting diode) technology has been used for grow light systems. LED grow light systems offer many advantages to typical grow light systems in terms of efficiency. For example, LED systems are more efficient than typical grow light systems at converting electrical energy to light energy necessary for plant growth. Additionally, LED grow light systems can utilize the particular wavelengths necessary for plant growth. For example blue light (455 nm-470 nm) can be used to promote vegetative or leaf growth, and red light (620 nam-665 nm) can be used to promote plant flowering. LEDs can also operate at lower temperatures than some typical lighting systems.
While LED lighting systems offer many advantages over typical grow light systems, many disadvantages still exist. A LED grow light system that overcomes the deficiencies of current systems is desired.